Literature inspires, enriches, educates, and entertains. It reminds us that there is beauty and joy in language,that others have insights worth paying attention to, that in our struggles we are not alone. By helping writers and translators create new work and connect with audiences through publishers and other literary organizations and programs, the National Endowment for the Arts celebrates literature as an essential reflection of our nation's rich diversity of voices.

In Jennifer Haigh’s fifth novel Heat and Light, she returns to the fictional town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania: its prosperity withered with the closing of the coalmines. So when it’s learned that the area is rich in natural gas, many people are eager to sign over their mineral rights to energy companies. And the debate about fracking and all that it entails upends the community.

NEA Literature Fellowships represent the National Endowment for the Arts' most direct investment in American creativity. The goal of the fellowships program is to encourage the production of new work and allow writers the time and means to write.

Nineteen thought-provoking essays on the art of translation and its ability to help us understand other cultures and ways of thought by award-winning translators and publishers. Includes recommendations by the...

National Initiatives

NEA Big ReadDiscover new books, start a conversation, apply for a grant to fund a reading program in your community.

Poetry Out LoudWitness millions of high school students embrace and recite poetry, and compete in state and national championships.